One Way
is a sci-fi webcomic written in 2014 by Christopher Baldwin of Spacetrawler fame.
When Earth gets its first message from an alien race, humanity sends an envoy of eight highly-skilled yet expendable individuals to make first contact. The comic follows the actions of the eight officers as they maintain the ship, deal with each other's various neuroses and investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding their mission.
Provides examples of:
- Aliens Speaking English
- Ambiguously Brown: Star
- The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: One of the major themes of the second half of the plot. Once it's clear that they're trapped in a suicide mission, Olivia starts making friends, Angie steps up as a leader, Lamont starts caring more about people and Orion starts taking things seriously instead of sleeping all the time
- Ax-Crazy: Star is, by far, the most physically violent and least mentally stable of the crew. It's later discovered that she has legitimate mental issues, and her medication was tampered with early on in the story, specifically to invoke this trope
- Beard of Sorrow: Francisco grows one over the course of the trip
- Bittersweet Ending: The aliens only allow one crewmember, Orion, to return home. But Lamont's plan is foiled, and the comic leaves in the possibility that the aliens might be lying to save face, and will allow the remaining crew to stay alive
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Gordon and Orion
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Everyone on board the ship is skilled at their jobs. However, they've also, in one way or another, pissed off so many people that the government made a point of sending them far, far away from Earth.
- Burial in Space: Lamont
- Consummate Liar: Lamont
- Cunning Linguist: One of Gordon's skills, which gets some use when he tries to re-translate the aliens' message.
- Deadpan Snarker: Lamont, almost constantly.
- Despair Event Horizon: After the reveal, Francisco essentially gives up on life, spending most of the rest of the trip drinking and hitting on the female crewmembers
- Dying Declaration of Love: Lamont's begins his dying speech with "Tell Gordon I was starting to fall in love with the jerk"
- Extreme Doormat: Francisco
- A Father to His Men: Despite his crew's complete lack of respect for him, Francisco does think of himself like this and tries to treat his subordinates appropriately. Of course, this goes right out the window once he gives up the position of captain
- Friends with Benefits: Francisco and Orion. Orion breaks it off about midway through the comic
- The Mole: Two of them. Star's with the People's Federation Rights Organization and Lamont is with the government's Secret Staff Agency
- No Social Skills: Olivia.
- Photographic Memory: Orion has perfect audio recall
- Redemption Equals Death: When the crew votes on who's getting sent back to Earth, Francisco excuses himself from the vote in order to make up for his terrible job as captain
- The Slacker: Orion, who spends most of the ship sleeping until the Suicide Mission reveal
- Straight Gay: Gordon and Lamont.
- Suicide Mission: The government fully expects that the team won't return from the mission
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Francisco gives one to the crew while resigning as captain
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Vagus, after ending up on the wrong side of a crazed Star
- Wham Line: "Unless we find a new source [of fuel] or someone to help us, we're never going home"
